It was night. The stars shone brightly, the
hills illuminated by a crescent moon. Pausing in his flight from the
compound behind him, a dark figure paused and looked up in wonder.
He'd forgotten what the stars looked like.They were
beautiful.Onward now, the figure ran. Keeping low, partially out
of habit, partially out of instinct that dictated he remain unseen.
Not knowing his destination, he ran with all his might on a road he
did not know but followed as though it were familiar. This young man,
more of a child really, running for his life, his freedom.Suddenly,
although his eyes needed no assistance from light, he became aware of
one - a flickering orange, off to his left. He turned towards it
without thinking, increasing his already frantic pace. Within seconds
he entered a clearing in the trees. Before him was a milling crowd of
people, men, women, children. They were milling about a fire,
chanting curses and screaming in fury at the fire - no, not the fire.
At the figure tied to the stake in the flames, now burning like a
candle.His sister.Who the mob thought was him.Turning,
running now, the figure fled back the way he had come - but it was no
longer the same way. A cliff waited before him, a drop of some eighty
feet. Two figures struggled on the edge of the cliff - one seemingly
an angel. one his brother. As he stared in horror, the angel hurled
his adversary into the empty space beyond the cliff's edge, and
turned to face the new arrival.Your sins, your stupidity, your
weakness. now they have led to the deaths of those you most hold
dear. You should have surrendered, fool.The escapee turned to
run again - and saw a fence blocking his way. He could not pass. And
behind him, as the landscape changed once more, becoming a place of
pain, a place of evil, a place of science that was never intended to
benefit mankind. A place known as Genetex.He was a prisoner
again.He began to scream, a drawn out cry that echoed throughout
the night.

And woke.

He was alone, by himself in a
cave. In this new place he'd been forced to transform into a home,
the place he'd lived alone for nearly two years now, though he
himself had long lost count. He was lying on the pile of animal skins
and branches that served as his bed, dressed in a pair of ragged
pants that were all that remained of his clothes. As the dying echoes
of his scream bounced off the stone walls and into the night, his
breathing slowly returned to normal. Just a nightmare, not reality,
he realised. He was not at Genetex now. His strange, three-fingered
hand unconsciously felt the patch of midnight blue fur on his
shoulder that covered the barcode they'd tattooed there upon his
arrival at the Genetex laboratories.

Be strong, he
told himself. I am safe here. they cannot find me here. no- one
will come for me here.

Alone in the darkness, Kurt Wagner
began to cry.

----

"Good morning,
Logan." The burly Canadian grunted an intelligible reply as Ororo
reached around him to reach the coffee. "Did you sleep well?""For
a while. Somethin' woke me up 'bout 4 am."Ororo sipped her
coffee. "What was it?""Don't know. I've heard it before,
though. Mentioned it to Chuck. He says I'm imagining things."Hank
McCoy looked up from the newspaper he was reading at the table.
"Getting confused in our old age are we, my friend?" he smirked.
Logan scowled and was about to blast the blue mutant with a scathing
retort when he was interrupted by the arrival of the student body in
general.

"This is like, soooo unfair!" wailed Kitty. "It's
not even 9 o' clock yet!""But we woke up at 7:30 yesterday,"
chimed one a trio of Jamies – he'd managed to dupe himself within
10 minutes of waking up by falling over a lupine Rahne on the way to
the shower."That was a school morning," reminded Rogue. "Now
quiet, or you'll encourage Logan.""Too late, darlin',"
grinned Logan. "I'm up, so I don't need encouraging."

"Not even from your
invisible friend?" murmured Hank, earning a scowl from Logan, a
grin from Ororo and a confused glance from everyone else. Then Logan
turned back to the others."Now then. You've probably all
noticed the snow outside, right?"

There was an
apprehensive murmur of assent. "Well, since you're all having so
much trouble waking up this morning, it can help ya out. You're all
going for a run, all of you, to the falls in the mountains and back.
That's five miles all told. Breakfast will be waiting when you get
back, and the loser's got cleaning duty for the whole weekend."

There was dead silence
that was finally broken by Evan.

"So, exactly how long
ago did you sell your soul to the devil, man?"Logan grinned. "I
am the devil, porcupine. Get changed, all of you. Show up late and as
well as the run, it's 2 hours in the danger room. With me."

Had the students
maintained the speed at which they ran to change into their uniforms,
the 4-mile run would have been over in a few minutes.

----

"Before breakfast?
Really, Logan," admonished the Professor.

"Don't worry, Chuck,"
chuckled the gruff man. "I told Scooterboy that they're to turn
back after a mile and a half, and even he doesn't know that the
cleaning duty threat was a lie."

"Well then,"
announced Hank, "this gives us a spare hour or so - Logan, why
don't you entertain us with the exploits of your imaginary friend.
Have you heard this little fable yet, Charles?"

"Yes, I have,"
admitted Charles. "And I'll tell you what I told Logan. If there is
someone living in those mountains, then they're there by choice. If
they're a mutant, they're not using their powers or else Cerebro
would pick up their signals. No matter who they are, they probably
have a very good reason for living in solitude, and it's not our
place to intrude. And if it's simply Logan's overactive imagination,
there's nothing to worry about, now is there?"Logan snorted.
"Whatever, Chuck. I know what I hear, I know what I smell, and I
know there's someone - or something - hiding up in those hills." He
turned to gaze at the peaks out of the window. "And I don't like
not knowing who it is."

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